Dumbledore's Army
by xwoutje
Summary: While Harry is up and about, searching Horcruxes, Neville and the 'gang' are stuck at Hogwarts. What made them and most of the DA choose to go hiding in the RoR instead of rebelling like they had before? 7th year.


This was all new to him. Never before had he _not_ looked forward to going to Hogwarts. Each year before was filled with anticipation, now it was filled with dread. He never did care that his friends seemed to hang out only with the three of them and that the person he talked most to was the little sister of one of those friends. Neither did he care that not only the Slytherins, almost everyone, made fun of him. Well, maybe he did care. But he never let it dent his happiness of going to Hogwarts, a place he for eleven years had not expected to be going after being called a squib by everyone he had ever known and which after six years, going into the seventh, had never lost its magic, if you were to say it in this way. Yet this year, this year everything had changed.

This year when he would arrive at school, there would be no welcoming speech of the eccentric yet much liked headmaster. He would not be able to hear Dean, a dorm mate of his, go on and on about a muggle sport called football. Dolores Umbridge would probably not be on her second place of his _I would not care if you died/I will kill you if I had the chance _list, after, of course, Bellatrix Lestrange. Even though Voldemort could probably tie her to it. And the Golden Trio, as they were also called, would not be trying to figure anything out like they had done for six years. Because they would be out there, in the real world, helping. And he could not help but think that he would not be. There he would be, he could just imagine it, in a dorm together with Seamus, all the rest of the boys gone. With no assurances that they would ever get back, were it alive or not. He balled his hands in fists.

He understood that he had to go, that he had no choice. But no chance in _hell _would he ever in a conscious mind, let anyone he did not agree with rule over him. He would rather die. This is, of course, was not what he told his gran. He had thought in the years before that the woman had never really cared for him, only taking care of him because she could not bear to disappoint her son and her daughter-in-law. This seemed to not have exactly hit the spot, because yesterday, the night before boarding the train, she had told him to be alright. And he had agreed.

But he had never agreed to not doing anything. He would be alright if he was sure he would be helping others, would he not? Of course he would. He had made his mind up about this a week after he had picked up the paper and had read that Snape would take Dumbledore's spot as headmaster. Snape, the traitorous backstabbing git, would take over Dumbledore's place. It had taken a few days to sink in until he realized. _Snape was taking up Dumbledore's spot. _Was this why the man had murdered the dubbed Leader of the Light? To get a stupid, meaningless, position? Until then he had been angry at the traitor, but only then he realized that the man was _pathetic. _And there was no way that he, Neville Francis Longbottom, would listen to the fools' rules.

That would be like giving up. And Longbottoms simply do not give up. Or give in, on that matter. Through his gran's position in the Ministry, she had found out that two professors had replaced two others. Snape, obviously since the sniveling git was now _headmaster_, so that was Defence Against the Dark Arts. Neither his gran or he had yet found out what the other subject was, even though both grandmother and grandson had broken their mind over it. Long ago, or at least it seemed long ago, when Scrimgeour had been assassinated, his gran had come to me.

"_Neville," _he had remembered her saying as they had just finished their tasty dinner "_it was time we took the cards in our hand. We should be the ones handing them out, not the monstrous creatures that are doing it now." _It was the closest he came to ever hearing her insulting. His gran, he decided, was very proper. In the opinion of most though, she was not a full pure blood anymore. Still he was not sure how that could change overnight, but apparently it could, and so gran and he were both vastly surprised that when almost the entire Ministry was reformed and many Ministry workers had been thrown out, she had been free to stay. To a few conditions.

In the end _he _had convinced _her _to not take her leave. _"This way we, the Light Side, have an influence too. Not a big one, but still. And you will get to know all news before anyone else. Take this to our advantage instead of disadvantage. As you said, we are going to hand out the cards." _It had been the first time, or so he remembered, that she had looked so proud. When he came back from the Department of Mysteries she had been very proud too (she had not even gotten angry at him because he broke dad's wand) but there had been a tint of sadness for what could have happened too. "_You have become so much like your father. You have made him and your mother proud."_

Never had he been as proud of himself either. Not because of what he had said, because he had just spoken his mind like he had seemed to do more often since of late, but because he had made his gran proud. As said, there's a first for everything.

And right now he'd be _brave _for the first time. And not the '_Neville, I'm so proud of you, you stood up to your friends brave' _or even the '_You fought so heroically'_, more like Harry brave. As in '_You came in, saved everyone's asses but got extremely hurt yourself' _brave. He would not let anyone, _anyone, _if he would have say in it get hurt. And if he would not have a say, he would interfere anyway. This would be the year where he would step up and do Harry's and Ron's and Hermione's work. If they weren't there to do it, he would do it for them. He would not shy away anymore.

"NEVILLE!" He jumped up, not having realized he was so lost in thought. "I called about 4 times!" He grinned at the temperamental yet so friendly girl in front of him. "Could not hear you because of the others." She raised an eyebrow, and only then did he really look around at his surroundings. The platform was not bustling and it did not have a pleasant feeling.

Instead, it was _silent. _So silent, that purebloods all around were looking at them with disdain, as if they were filth. They did not seem nervous at all, on the contrary, they seemed a little too at ease. And that made him nervous. The years before, they would always stand out, stiff, posh looks permanently stuck to their faces sneering at everything and everyone. This year, it seemed to be the norm. It made him sick.

He did notice a difference though. Not in the pureblood part of the students, but in the what he knew to be either halfbloods or so called blood traitors. He also saw some muggleborns hurrying through the crows and onto the train to escape the many judging looks and the insults thrown to their heads. He was getting angrier and angrier but then someone put a hand on his shoulder. He looked around and saw Luna.

It relieved him, in some way, to see that she had not changed. She was still, without a better way to explain it, Luna. Even though he knew her carefree attitude to be some sort of cover, it felt familiar. And familiar was what he needed. Trust Luna, he thought to himself, to stay the same through all of this. "This is not the right place." She said friendly, understanding in her eyes. And he did believe that she understood. But she was right. Not under all those parents' noses. Despite everything he could sprout, they were dangerous. People died on a daily basis. No matter how much he tried to forget it, they even managed to kill Dumbledore, one of the only men thought to be invincible.

Thus he nodded. "Let's say good-bye and find a compartment." The three of them looked at each other for a moment before all nodding. Luna went to find her father the first and he and Ginny were silent. "They will be alright, Ginny." She looked at him with slight shock, probably not sure whether he was talking about Ron, Harry and Hermione or her family. To be honest he did not either. She nodded determinedly. "They better." Then she turned around and walked to her family which had shown up together to see the youngest of the clan off.

Neville also turned around and walked towards his gran, trying to look sure of himself. What his gran had to do for the Light was hard enough, he did want to add worry for him on top of it. Despite the fact that she always looked fairly certain, all he could find on her face was worry. "It doesn't take a majority to make a rebellion; it takes only a few determined leaders and a sound cause." She looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. He grinned sheepishly. "Hermione quoted it to me last year after Dumbledore's funeral. I guess it stuck." It was silent, but not uncomfortably, as they both thought about what had changed in between that particular moment in time and now.

"You have grown so much. I cannot any longer tell you that you were truly your father's son. Because you are your mother's too. Make us proud, son." He nodded, and saw pride shining out of his gran's eyes. He softly kissed her on the cheek. "Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if only one remember to turn on the light." He whispered softly as he finally seemed to realize that almost all families on the platform were looking at them. "Dumbledore's." He said, before she could ask. She nodded, and he nodded back. Then, loud enough for all people on the silent platform to hear, he said. "We have lost some major battles, but the next will be ours. And I will be there. Take care, grandmother." He heard someone gasp and it was not his gran.

He turned around and found the source of the sound. Molly, Ginny's mother, looked at him with big eyes. She seemed the only one in the family shocked, the others seemed to understand. He walked towards the Weasleys and said, this time hard enough only for them to hear "I will protect her." To his surprise Ginny did not even protest she just looked very grateful, so did the rest of the family. Before he could do anything else, Molly was trying to suffocate him, but he did not try to pull away. For one, he did not often get hugged and she seemed to need it so who was he to not accept?

Fred and George looked at him over their mother's shoulder. "Protect yourself too, mate." Neville just nodded, even though he knew he would not. Two men, who seemed to be brothers judging on their hair color, clapped his back and Arthur, whom he knew from the few times he had went to the ministry with his gran looked at him with a grief look. "We would hope it was needed. However, now that it is needed, we thank you to the deepest of our hearts. All of us would jump at the chance to do it ourselves but all children of the right age needed to enlist to Hogwarts this year. And since Ron-" He cut his sentence off.

"I understand, sir." Molly finally let go and straightened his collar, he just smiled. She then started to straighten every different part of Ginny's uniform too. She, this year, seemed to have made the decision as him and had already put it on. "God, I'm going to miss you." Ginny just grinned, trying to come over relaxed. They could, however, all see through it with ease. "I hope you will miss _me _too." It took a second but both Fred and George started laughing. "There is still hope, brother." The other nodded. "So there is, brother."

"Hello very big Weasley group!" They all looked up at Luna who had just cheerfully greeted them. "Hello Luna, dear." Mrs. Weasley said, a smile on her face. No matter how strange Luna could be, no offence, she always seemed to have a calming effect anywhere she was. The oldest of the old brothers looked at his watch. "You three should really get on the train." Ginny gave all Weasleys there a quick hug before we all three waved and hurried towards the train. Soon they had found a carriage on the right part of the train, the often proclaimed Gryffindor side. The train was, so speaking, divided in four parts. All left was Slytherin, next to it was Ravenclaw, then Hufflepuf and then Gryffindor. And then mingled mostly in the right part of the train you could also find first years since it was just the more inviting part.

They had planned on finding a compartment but in the one carriage sat almost the entirety of Gryffindor. Only now it dawned on him how many members of his house were muggleborns, but also how many members were affected. From his year, only Seamus, Parvati and Lavender had come back (from his house, Gryffindor).

David Lancaster, who was well-known to be muggleborn third year, was also there. "This year I received no letter, but I just thought that someone had misplaced it, and I don't have an owl, so just got my books myself. The worker in the bookstore knew what to sell me anyway. But everything seems to have changed." There was an uncomfortable silence. How do you explain someone who has missed all the summer's event, that he now was not accepted in society?

Seamus broke the silence. "In the middle of the summer the Minister, Scrimgeour, was assassinated and Pius Thicknesse took his place. The man is rumored to be under an Imperius, so simply put You-Know-Who is now in control of the country. The slimy git Snape is now Headmaster." There was not one person who did not scrunch up his or her face when thinking about that. David was shocked.

"You-Know-Who wants to kill all mudbloods!" He called out, with a scared expression. Three others in the carriage blanched too, and so Neville assessed them as muggleborns too. Parvati interrupted angrily. "Do not say that word! You are a muggleborn, and nothing will happen to you if we have a say in it!" Just at that moment, 7 Death Eaters stalked in. Most Gryffindors immediately took out our wands and Seamus and he seemed to be the only ones already incanting, though Ginny was at the point of beginning. But with one spell they were all frozen, no matter how much he tried he could not move. All he could do was watch as three took out lists which, as far as he could see, had photos on them. One then pointed at David and another nodded.

The Death Eater that had just nodded shot a killing curse at the boy. There was no change to be seen, the boy sat just as frozen as he had before. But Neville was enraged, and he felt so much hatred. The man then levitated David out of the window and without further ado dropped him out of it. The series of events repeated three more times, and the students that he had thought to be muggleborn were all killed. And then unceremoniously dropped out of a window. Only when the Death Eaters had walked out of the carriage door, could they move again.

"The fucking bastards!" Seamus yelled, or more screamed as the boy ran towards the door and started pulling at it, but it wouldn't open. The rest of the carriage was all silent, pale, not able to get the images of what just happened before their noses out of their minds. "I'm going to fucking kill them!" Neville than softly stood up and pulled Seamus away from the door. "We will, not just you. But we cannot do anything now." Seamus angrily turned towards him "That's easy for you to say! You don't have a best friend that could be killed at this very moment!" Neville's look hardened. "I do, actually. Or did you forget that Harry is at this very moment is doing everything he possibly can to save us all from You-Know-Who? I didn't." Seamus just shook his head.

"We will talk more about this later." I promised, and he nodded knowingly. No matter how much both of them wanted, they could not trust everyone present. After what seemed to be hours in silence while it only was about half an hour, we arrived. Everyone they met was silent, it was as if everyone felt the doom hanging above their heads, just like he did. No longer was Hogwarts a safe haven, it was now infiltrated with the enemy. And there was nothing they could do about it. Well, Harry could, but he wasn't here. Nor was anyone that could make a difference. Harry wouldn't have accepted this, neither would Hermione or Ron, or Dumbledore for that matter, or Moody (which he had heard his gran talk about) or Dean or any other muggleborn that was- is a student at Hogwarts. Neville shook his head.

It didn't feel right, Hogwarts had been everything he had ever dreamed of. Many others had too. How must the first years be feeling? All of them, now that the muggleborns were gone, as he thought bitterly, had dreamed of Hogwarts for at least 11 years. And now here they were, at a place that was supposed to be cheery, now the only word to describe it would be grave. Or, he supposed, some first years would find _this _situation their happiest dreams. The thought only almost made him belch. How could they? David had only been 13, but he was killed. David was _innocent. _They had absolutely no fucking right. And all Neville had been able to do was watch. He had been a wimp.

He should have been able to shoot a curse immediately. He had known something was about to happen. But he hadn't done anything. A sigh escaped his lips. "C'mon, buddy." Seamus said, clapping him on the shoulder, looking as unhappy and angry at himself as Neville. "All we can do is protect the ones still here. We'll talk later, yeah?" "Sure." He answered. The conversation had broken the silence for a bit, but now it was as silent as it had been. This year there was no Hagrid to be seen. Instead, Neville saw an awfully familiar face and posture, which he could not place a name with. Where was Hagrid?

Before he could think about it too much, he was pulled into a carriage by Ginny. "It's a Carrow!" She whispered ferociously. "What?!" He whispered back while all kind of thoughts were spinning through his head. "He was there then?" He said bitterly, after a moment of thought. Parvati, who had entered behind him interrupted. "Who was where?" Ginny turned to the older girl. "Carrow, the man who was standing by the first year boats, he was there last year." Parvati frowned. "When?" Then it dawned on her. "When Snape-?" I nodded. "Yeah, when the git killed Dumbledore. He was there." Seamus, Luna and Lavender were also silent. It didn't take long however- "That git!" Parvati hit Seamus.

"Don't yell!" Seamus shrugged. "Not like he can hear me from the castle or anything." Parvati shrugged. It was silent for a second. "So, what we you going to say?" Seamus said, softly even though there was no one eavesdropping (yes, he had checked with a spell). It was very silent. "Or don't you want to tell us, think we will tell on you? My best mate is out there somewhere, running for his life. Don't you know how much I worry?!" Seamus almost yelled. Ginny shushed him.

"Of course not. It's just that-" He stopped with talking and did not seem to be able to continue. "I know. Believe me, I know. Darkness reminds us where light can be, alright? And at the moment, the light is Harry. So we got to help him." The whole carriage was now looking at Neville, "What do you mean? No one knows if Harry is still alive!" Lavender said. Ginny hit him. "Of course he is. Or Voldemort would've told us all, don't you think? Lavender had never looked ashamed, but that seemed to have changed. _She _seemed to have changed. Hadn't they all?

Neville sighed He blushed when he realized all people in the carriage had their attention solely on him. "Well, ehm, I guess y'all still know the DA? Dumbledore's Army?" Everyone nodded, Seamus looking at Neville as if he was stupid. "Of course we do." "There'd always been a reason that Harry taught it in 5th year. I mean, I think there was." He scratched his head but continued talking when he saw Ginny's encouraging nod. "Harry simply wouldn't have taught all those people merely for the purpose of getting good marks. I mean, it's not like we needed Patronuses for our OWL's or NEWT's, right?"

He was silent for a moment. "I don't think Harry's motive was to make us an army or anything, I think he wanted us to be protected. But, as I said, we could be an army. Sort of." He didn't look up, scared of their reactions. Hastily he tried to defend his idea. "Not like fighting, but like spraying slogans on walls and stuff. To irritate _them._" No one needed to ask who them was, since that was kind of obvious. "And I'm also not saying everyone should be participating because we will probably get in problems. But I, and you I hope as well, don't want what just happened to make a reappearance. I would rather die."

It was silent as everyone thought that over. "I'm in." Luna said, with a very calming expression on her face. Neville thankfully nodded at her. "Thanks Luna." He said softly. "I'm too." Seamus said after not much thinking. To his surprise, Lavender and Parvati had agreed too before Ginny said anything. "I don't know. I want to fight, but I don't know." He tried not to look to disappointed. Ginny hurried on. "If they were to threaten any of my brothers, or you, or anyone actually, I would break. I am not as strong as you all are." Seamus shook his head. "We would all break. As long as we don't rat others out, we can take a few blows. And you're, even though a blood traitor, still a pureblood. They won't kill you. I think." It was somewhat scary that we were thinking about being killed as if it was the most normal subject of conversation. And in the last few months it _had _become normal. He shuddered to think what would be normal in another few months time. Torture? Well, that too was not too weird anymore. Maybe cutting off limbs one by one. He shook his head to get the image out if head. "It'll be alright." He said. And it would be, there was no other choice. It had to be.


End file.
